Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1899 — OWNER OF THE SHAMROCK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OWNER OF THE SHAMROCK.

l.ipton Laid the ■ Foundation for His Million* in This Country. One of the first things that strike the American traveler in England is the sign, “Lipton, Ltd.,” stuck up over perhaps a hundred places in London, and possibly 500 outside of it In fact, about every other butcher shop in the kingdom seems to be the property of “Lipton, Ltd.” Of course, every one knows who Lipton is, but it is not generally known that the Shamrock’s owner is only a stockholder in a company which bears this title. Another feature about these places is the air of decidedly American enterprise about them. There are Lipton’s teams; also, Lipton’s cakes and Lipton’s bread, to say nothing of a hundred other things that are Lipton’s, also. English society doesn’t speak well of Lipton. Mention him to one of the aristocracy and his response is: “He’s a good fellow, but not one of us, you know. He’s like one of you American chaps.” These are some of the expressions, but the common people are with him, for Lipton, Ltd., bas cut priees so that many a workman’s family now has a Sunday dinner such as they never enjoyed before the Anglo-American nobleman began business. \ Sir Thomas is a type of the real An-glo-American. Though of Irish parentage he grew up in Scotland, gained his

he raised enough money to reach New York from Glasgow, traveling in the steerage. In the metropolis he first found enough to keep him alive as a chore boy in a store on Broadway, where he remained about three years. At the end of this time he was about as well off as when he landed—possibly a dollar or so better. One day he saw a vessel loaded with cotton in the North River, and managed to work his passage back on her to Charleston, where be saw the cotton in the fields, but those were the days just after the war, when you couldn’t find enough money in Carolina, except Confederate money, to average $1 to the square mile, and after a couple of years of It he returned to New York. This time he had work enough to get together about S2OO and decided to go back home. There he started in business selling trinkets, candles, toys for children, and showed his ability as a tradesman, for this is Lipton’s forte. Gradually he worked

Into the grocery and provision business, enlarging as he succeeded. For the first ten years he confined his operations to Glasgow, then he branched in Belfast, and finally worked up a trade, especially in Irish bacon and eggs, sending them to England in quantities. He made contracts with farmers In various parts of the kingdom to supply him with certain grades of hams other specialties, for which he was noted;

Then he turned his attention to the chances in Chicago for buying provisions and in a few years he had the American branch, supplying the English and other stores with a large portion of their stock. Anu so he has succeeded until his wealth is well up in the millions—how many is a question. He is yet in the prime of life, but 4&— and not a gray hair in his head.

SIR THOMAS LIPTON.